The Mystery of the Disappearing Siblings
Twilight smiled as she watched the scene unfold before her from the door of her palace. Just a little further ahead from her, Fluttershy was in the middle of embracing her brother, Zephyr, with the two bearing wide and affectionate smiles for one another. But, as with all things, it eventually came to an end, and the two siblings parted. After nodding to one another, Fluttershy gave him a brief wave, and watched as he began to make his way away from her. As the shy pegasus watched him, Twilight moved beside her, waiting a moment before finally speaking up to her friend.
"You think he'll be okay?"
Fluttershy turned to her, nodding.
"He will. It'll take some time to adjust, but...yes...I think he'll be okay."
Continuing to smile, Twilight gently placed a hoof upon her friend's shoulder, and together, the two began to walk back inside the palace. Once inside, Twilight used her magic to close the door behind them, and as they moved onwards, they caught sight of their other friends, all of whom were currently sitting around the friendship table. They were in he middle of talking to one another, and only stopped when they noticed the other two mares approaching.
"Hey there, Flutters. Your bro doing okay?" Rainbow asked, her disdain for the stallion clear as day upon her face.
Fluttershy smiled and nodded in response, apparently having not noticed Rainbow's tone of voice, prompting a chuckle from her childhood friend. As Twilight and Fluttershy took their respective positions around the table, Rarity was the next to speak.
"Well, your brother may have had his...er...off moments, but it's nice to see that things between you ended well."
Fluttershy opened her mouth to respond to that, only to close it again when she and everypony else noticed that Spike was now entering the room. He was carrying a tray with seven small cups of tea, and as soon as he was close enough, Twilight used her magic to levitate each and every one of them to their respective owner. With his duties now done, Spike took his own seat, and after blowing on his tea a little, looked up to Fluttershy himself.
"I'm kinda wondering why you never talked about your brother before now, Fluttershy."
To this, the pegasus mare looked to him with confusion.
"Wha...what do you mean?"
Looking back to her, Spike seemed a little taken aback.
"Well...er...this whole problem with him and your parents...it's the first time you've ever talked about him."
Fluttershy frowned slightly.
"No it isn't."
Spike frowned back.
"Yes...it is."
Looking to her other friends, Fluttershy spoke to all of them at once.
"I haven't kept my brother a secret...have I?"
For a moment, all of them looked to Twilight, seeming equally unsure and hesitant. But, in the end, it was the Princess herself who broke the silence.
"Well...I'm sorry to say this, Fluttershy, but...Spike's right. I mean, all the others knew about him, but when it came to Spike and me...you just kept quiet about him."
Naturally, Fluttershy looked rather shocked by this, and seemed to struggle for a response.
"But...but...what about the time I told you all about how we grew up? Or when we shared all those wonderful birthdays together?"
Again, her friends stayed silent, and at the end of it, it was the young alicorn who once more spoke.
"I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but...you never told me about any of that."
Here, Fluttershy frowned again.
"Well...even if that was true, it's not as if it's the only time it's happened. I mean...what about your brother?"
Twilight seemed surprised by this comment.
"What are you talking about?"
"You never once told us about him before his wedding! It was a complete surprise for all of us!" Fluttershy argued.
At first, Twilight seemed indignant at that, but, as she looked around the room, she saw looks of agreement amongst her friends, with nods aplenty. Realising this, Twilight looked down at the table, appearing deep in thought.
"No, that...no! I'm positive I talked about Shiny before that!"
Reclining into her chair, Pinkie finally added her voice to the mix.
"Sorry, Twilight, but no."
Looking up to her, Twilight narrowed her eyes.
"Oh yeah? Well how about you, Pinkie? Until the day we first met Maud, we all thought you only had the two sisters!"
Hearing that, Pinkie let out a giggle.
"Don't be silly, silly! I talked about Maud all the time before that!"
Again, there was disagreement, as all of her friends shook their heads to this. As Pinkie looked at each of them, she tapped her chin with her hoof.
"At least...I thought I told you about her."
Walking up to her, Spike replied to this.
"Sorry, Pinkie, but you didn't. Heck, even when you were telling Apple Bloom and the other Crusaders about how you got your cutie mark, you left her out. In the story it was just you, your parents, Limestone and Marble. Maud wasn't mentioned once."
To that, Pinkie let out a shocked gasp.
"That's terrible! Why would I tell my own personal backstory and leave out my bestest sister in the whole wide world?!"
Shrugged shoulders were abound all around the table to that, making it clear that nopony knew the answer. As the awkwardness of the situation sank in, Twilight thought hard on the matter yet again.
"Fascinating. It's as if we're in some situation where, until they become directly involved with our entire group, our siblings just become a blank spot in our minds."
Many of the mares shivered at such a prospect.
"That is simply a ghastly notion, darling!" Rarity chimed in.
"It's weird is what it is!" Applejack added.
In fact, the moment the farm mare had spoken, she gained a look of realisation.
"Hey...wait a minute! Ah know fer a fact that y'all never had any trouble rememberin that mah brother exists!"
But Twilight waved a hoof to her.
"Big Mac was always there. As soon as I first set hoof in Ponyville, he was there, along with the rest of your family, remember? If the Apple family reunion hadn't taken place at that time, then who knows? Maybe we'd have been oblivious to him until some later date too!"
Applejack, understandably, seemed disturbed by that thought. But, before anypony could say anything else, they were interrupted by the sound of Rainbow laughing her head off.
"So you girls just got a little forgetful a few times. It's no big deal. I mean, it's not as if things are as spooky as Twilight is making it out to be."
Twilight seemed a little insulted at such words, but, sadly, she hadn't the chance to reply to that, as she was interrupted when Spike, to the surprise of everypony there, suddenly burped loudly. As expected, this conjured forth a scroll from his green flames soon afterwards. And as it fell into the young drake's hand, he began to read it.
"Oh! It's for Rainbow!"
While certainly surprised to find herself receiving a Spike-burped message for once, Rainbow quickly zoomed off towards him, snatching the scroll up and beginning to read it in earnest. A silence passed between the group, and when it ended, the cyan mare's face broke out into a massive smile.
"Awesome! My brother is coming to town for a visit!"
Immediately, all eyes were on her, shocked and hesitant.
"Um...your brother?!" Twilight remarked.
Rainbow nodded, not noticing the look on her face, and set the scroll down. For a moment, she looked wistful and nostalgic.
"Sheesh...it's been ages since I last saw old Whirlwind!"
A chuckle escaped her.
"Hey! Remember all those times I told you girls about the great adventures he and I had when we were kids? Ah, good times!"
But, when she finally took note of her comrades, she noticed, at long last, that none of them were smiling to that. Instead, their expressions were a mixture of looks, from confusion, to irritation, to even outright fear and concern. In the face of that, Rainbow said perhaps the only thing anypony could say under such circumstances.
"...What?"
As the writers watched the story unfold before them, their expressions were ones of pure horror.
"Damn it, Tony! This is all your fault!" one of them declared.
The other looked to him, insulted.
"What?! But...but..."
"No! It is! After all the other stuff with forgotten siblings, you said you were gonna put the episode mentioning Zephyr before this one, not after!"
The other writer seemed equally fearful.
"But...but...what are we gonna do?!"
Panic spread over both of their faces at this point.
"Argh! The boss is gonna kill us for this!"
